Innocence and the Death Penalty

List of Exonerees Since 1973 Description of each exoneration available by clicking the names on the list. Includes criteria for inclusion on list.

Innocence DatabaseSearchable database of all exonerations since 1973 - allows you to search and sort for cases by year, state, race, and other variables. Description of each exoneration also available here by clicking the names on the list.

From DPIC

FORMER DEATH ROW INMATES FREED IN OHIO

On November 21, 2014, Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman were released from prison in Ohio. Prosecutors filed a motion to drop charges against Jackson, Bridgeman, and their co-defendant, Kwame Ajamu (formerly, Ronnie Bridgeman), who had been released, but not exonerated, in 2003. A judge officially dismissed the charges against Jackson and Bridgeman. Ajamu's official exoneration is expected soon.

Ricky Jackson speaks to the media after his release. (photo, Univ. of Cincinnati)

The three men had been convicted of a 1975 murder on the testimony of a 12-year-old boy, who recently recanted, saying he had not witnessed the murder at all. All three defendants were sentenced to death. Upon his release, Jackson said, "The English language doesn’t even fit what I’m feeling. I’m on an emotional high. You sit in prison for so long and think about this day but when it actually comes you don’t know what you’re going to do, you just want to do something.”

Wiley Bridgeman

Following his release, Bridgeman said, "The bitterness is over with; I carried that too long.'' Jackson's and Bridgeman's 39 years in prison is the longest time between conviction and exoneration of any of those exonerated. Since 1973 there have been 149 exonerations of people sentenced to death in the U.S. including eight in Ohio. Kwame Ajamu remarked, “I was sentenced to die, as was Ricky and my brother. We were 17, 18, and 20. For a crime we didn’t do.”

From DPIC

There is no way to tell how many of the almost 1,400 people executed since 1976 may have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence once the defendant is dead. Defense attorneys move on to other cases where clients' lives can still be saved. (see possible cases of those executed who might have been innocent).

Recently, the case of Cameron Willingham (pictured) has been in the news. He was convicted of murdering his three children by arson in a 1991 house fire. He was executed in 2004. A new report from a national arson expert, prepared for the Texas Forensic Science Commission, has concluded that the original investigation of Willingham's case was seriously flawed and could not support a finding of arson. Read More